Coffee and Bibles

Every Wednesday, I meet with 2 friends for coffee and Bible Study. We pray together, encourage one another and hold each other accountable to consistently be in God's Word. We meet at a different coffee shop each week and we've decided to start a blog together to share what God is teaching us and also to critique the coffee shop we visited. I invite you to view this blog by clicking here.

Giving God the Glory in Hard Times

Some good friends of our family are going through a rough time right now. We love this family that we met through our daughter's swim team. They have 3 daughters, ages 8, 4 and 6 months. The month of April has not been kind to them. At the beginning of the month, the husband was laid off from his job. Then a little over a week ago the wife's mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer after a hysterectomy and removal of a fast growing tumor on the ovary. While her mother was in the hospital, the nurse walked in the room to find her father passed out on the floor due to high blood pressure. In addition to all the stress they're experiencing, the wife's cousin and his new bride are coming to the US from Thailand for their honeymoon. As is custom for their culture, the newlyweds will be staying at our friends' house for 1 1/2 weeks (they arrived today). This may not sound too bad, that is until you know that they live in a very small 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house. Then, just when they thought they couldn't handle anymore, last night their 2 dogs ran out of the house when their middle daughter left the door open and they were both hit by a car when they ran into the street. All of this happened in front of their 4 year-old daughter. One of the dogs died within minutes and the other one was taken to the pet ER, where he should recover after a lot of medical treatment and a very large bill. The oldest daughter has taken this very hard. We had the girls come to our house immediately after the accident so they could swim with our girls and play to try to keep their minds off of what had happened. The oldest daughter spent the night, which was a good thing so she didn't have to immediately return to her home without the dogs there. We ask for prayer for them as tomorrow they will get the results from her mother's surgery which will tell them how much the cancer has spread and what stage she is at.

So, what do you say to someone that is going through one hard thing after another? As I drove my friend to the pet ER last night to meet up with her husband, she shared that she just couldn't take anymore. I ached for her as she cried. It's so hard to assure someone that God is walking with them through this when the pressure just doesn't seem to let up. It took me back to the time 5 years ago when John underwent major spine surgery after being hit by a drunk driver. Just 8 days before his delicate, life changing surgery, I underwent surgery to try to avoid a hysterectomy. I was still recuperating as John went in for a surgery that had a fairly good risk of him coming out paralyzed (praise God he isn't). Then, just after he was home from the hospital, fires swept through Claremont and many other surrounding areas. At one point we had 12 evacuated people and all of their pets staying at our house. Immediately after that, I had the complete hysterectomy that I was praying to avoid. It was so hard to imagine at that time what God was doing. How was He going to use that to bring Him glory??? It took some time, but we slowly began to see God's purpose. I would never want to relive that period of time, but I'm content that it happened. It resulted in us growing much closer together as a family and strengthening our relationship with God. Although John still keeps a busy schedule, it really slowed down our pace of life so that we actually quit just going through the motions of life and really started living. John was home from work for 14months, which allowed him to be there for Kiley everyday after school while she was in kindergarten. We wish John wasn't left with lifelong pain, but that pain is a reminder of how far he's come. Just like the Apostle Paul, it also is a reminder to him to rely on God. There was a time that the physical therapists at Casa Colina said that he would never return to work, but he proved them wrong. God walked with us through every inch of that difficult time and He DID use it to bring Him GLORY! Last night I assured my fried that God IS with her and He WILL work all this for His good. So, as hard as it is, in all circumstances, Give God the glory!

Family Day & Makenna's 1st Rifle

Today was a full day! After a very long, busy week, we decided to dedicate the day to "family time." We started the day with church, which was fantastic, as always! After that, we went to lunch at Outback, always great food, and best of all, we had a gift card that covered our meal. From lunch, we went to Toys r Us so Makenna could use her gift card she's had since Christmas. She decided on a ball, play dough and sculpting foam. After that, we headed to the movies to see Disney's new movie, "Earth." It was a great movie (even with the sad parts as they show the circle of life) and we all really enjoyed it. After the movie let out, we went to Claire's (little girl heaven) so Kiley could use her gift card from Christmas. She got hair clips and a headband. Finally, it was time for John's favorite place, Pro Bass Shop. If you've never been there, it is HUGE with so much to see. Of course, we headed immediately upstairs, after watching the fish in the huge aquarium of course, where the hunting supplies are. We walked through the archery section so Kiley could look at the different bows and she also checked out the indoor archery range they have. Then, it was over to the gun section where John and Makenna were "oohing and awing" over all the guns. What can I say.....she is her father's daughter, she LOVES shooting. Her weapon of choice....a .22 rifle. She took her first shots last year while we were visiting the Weirs at their ranch near Paso Robles. That's when it happened! Makenna spotted herself a pink rifle and John was all over it! The
following pictures clearly state what happened next. Yep! Makenna, at 9 years old, got her 1st rifle! It is perfect for her, it's pink and just the right size. We weren't even out of the store when John started texting a picture of this proud moment in his life to all his friends. I must admit, I'm happy for both of them. John didn't get a son, but it appears that he doesn't have to worry about passing on his love of shooting and hunting to his child. With Makenna as a "shooter" and Kiley's love of archery, J is a happy man!

Women's Breakfast

Yesterday Janet and I went to the Women's Breakfast for our church, CCV. It was held at Via Verde Country Club and the theme was "All Things New." First of all, the Country Club is beautiful and the room was decorated perfectly for the theme. We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast, had our picture taken (they actually had a photographer there that will mail the photos to us for free) and visited the vendor booths. The vendors were all women from our church that have their own businesses...what a great way to support our sisters in Christ! Our speaker was Kathi Lipp from Northern California. She was fantastic, absolutely hilarious and filled with such wisdom. She spoke about the burdens we, as women, carry around with us. As she shared the different burdens we carry (expectations, addictions, comparison, "other people's stuff" and fear) she put a chain around her neck. There was a chain on every table and they handed out cards with ribbons on them and she had us write down burdens we are currently carrying. She then had each person at the table tie their cards to the chain, then we physically took the "chain with our burdens" and hung them at the cross. It was such an incredible, physical reminder that we're to surrender our burdens to Christ. We had a great day!

Makenna Gets Her Braces Off.....For Now

Monday was an exciting day for Makenna, she got her braces off! Before you get too excited (and I know you are), she will have to get them back on. She needs to get 4 permanent teeth removed and she also has 1 last baby tooth to lose. Once both of those happen and all of her permanent teeth are in, then she will get them back on to finish fixing her mid line that isn't lined up and close in the gaps. We compared her x-rays from right before she got them on to her x-rays just before they were taken off and the results are amazing. In just 10 months, the huge gap between her front teeth was closed, her mid line made great progress towards being lined up and her crooked teeth were turned how they're supposed to be. She still says her teeth feel slimy, but we all love her new smile, especially since it made her look younger. That's important to J and I since we don't want our "baby" to grow up! The above pictures show her just before getting the braces off and after getting them off.

Makenna's Long Course Swim Meet

Makenna had her first long course swim meet on Saturday and she did great! For those of you not familiar with swimming, the long course is when you swim the long length of the pool, so when you swim a 100, you swim 2 laps of 50's with just one flip turn. Makenna has always competed in short course meets where she would have to swim 4 laps of 25's to swim a 100. She happily embraced the new challenge. Because of the weekend swim schedule, she could only compete on Saturday. She competed in the 100 Freestyle and the 50 Breast stroke. We don't have the official results yet, but she had good times. An added challenge to this meet is that she had a birthday since her last meet, so she moved up an age group. Now, instead of being one of the older kids in her age group, she's back at the younger end of her age group and she's competing against some girls that are nearly two years older than her. As usual, she swam her heart out and had some great times, so we're not going to worry about where she placed once we get the official results. The most important thing to us is that she has fun and enjoys swimming competitively and that she continues to improve her times. With that said, she's a champion!

My New 2nd Blog

I've been wanting to start a second blog for several weeks now, but finally got it set up today. It's a blog for my daughters and a few other young women in my life that I love dearly. I invite you all to follow it if you like, even if you're not my daughters or one of those young girls in my life. :) I believe with all my heart that God wants to use the events in my life to bring people to Him. Through this new blog, I aspire to be completely open and transparent so that all that I share might help someone, anyone, but most of all, my precious daughters. Click here to connect to my new blog: http://fortheloveofmygirls.blogspot.com/